Thank you, a REVEAL and WTH?

First, before anything else.
THANK YOU for all your kind and compassionate words about Rosie.
They meant so much to me.
I have had, but not DIRECTLY said to me...
a few not kind people make a side remark, to others...
who then let it travel back to me that-
How can I care so much about all my pets?
The fact that I have more than the norm apparently makes them question how I can care
SO MUCH.
Well, I do.
And I feel very VERY sorry for those that can't understand it.
How awful to go through life with such a selfish hard heart.
Of course, I DO have some that will completely devastate me when they finally leave.
Truthfully, I hate loving some of them as much as I do.
Without question my Blue.
(Wow, even just typing out that sentence, filled my eyes with tears.)
But there's my cat Harry... oh god, he must live forever!
And my cat Ghost, he has to sleep as close as possible to me.
To say nothing of my little Ping and Poppy... but they are both young.
And my faithful Nora
and even irritating Jimmy Chew.
Yep, all the rest of them have my heart too.
So there.
It's just the way I am.
I was told as a child that I was too soft-hearted.
As I got older, I was told I needed to harden up.
Recently I was told that I needed to STOP caring so much.
I can't. I won't.
and why should I?

OK, On to a much HAPPIER topic!
My blogger friend Sharon, finally got the piece of Art that I did for her,
so I can reveal it now!
I showed some WIP's on Instagram but never the finished piece and here it is!

She wanted it to be of Jimmy Chew
and also the bag of dog food that he knocked over.
Here are some close-ups of the details.

I did it on art board in Inktense.
Then I did Jimmy, the bags of food and the kibble on paper and Inktense and ink
and collaged it on.
The kibble actually took the longest as I drew each piece, filled them in with Inktense and then went over it with my waterbrush and then relined it all.
But honestly, it felt like a form of meditation.
I went into a Zen mode!
LOL!

Then I made a few more "pieces" of kibble and collaged them on top of it to give it a more 3D feel.
I also extended the images over onto the sides.
Usually I don't do that because then I wouldn't be unable to copy it and make prints.
But I knew this was not to be copied, it was just for Sharon.
It meant so much to me that she wanted Jimmy and that she believes so much in me.
Yep, Definitely a GOOD THING!

And finally,
while I don't REALLY care...
the other day I noticed that my "blogger" Followers dropped from 98 to 95.
While I secretly had a little thrill that I was about to break a hundred,
I also know that there's many ways to Follow and that number doesn't mean much.
That and the fact that I really only care about QUALITY over Quantity
and my blogger friends here are THE BEST.

Then the other day the number dropped to 91!
WHAT THE HELL!
LOL!
but really, WTH?
I hope I didn't say or do something offensive
or worse, BORE people.
OK, letting it go...
Deep breaths.
(by the way, I have corrected the links to Follow my Art blog via email and subscribing. Thanks to Anne for giving me a heads up on that!)
I'm still thinking that's a lot to ask and maybe I just need to keep it all over here in one place....
Any thoughts or opinions?

Finally, my credit card got hacked! or whatever.
Luckily they text me immediately of possible fraudulent charges to a Walmart in central Iowa.
Yep, NOT me.
So they had to shut down that account and open a new one
and put a fraud watch alert on my credit reports.
Right after that, TWO people on Facebook,
both who used to work at the clinic but have moved on, had the same thing happen to them!
And none of us go to any of the same places or live in the same town!
Scary stuff.
But we all are questioning using our cards at gas stations.
I hate to go inside and prefer to pay at the pump but this has me thinking.
Have you dealt with fraudulent charges?
Do you think it could be the scanners at the pumps?
I hate to carry cash but maybe I should.

ONE DOWN and a FEW to go....

Well, I finished ONE commissioned painting during my time off.

I did it in my illustrated collage style.

I used acrylics, papers and Inktense pencils.

My friend wanted it to be of her longhair Dachshund who is constantly digging holes. 

I wrapped the cut paper around the sides so that there is no need for a frame.

Then I sealed it in a matte finish.

I hope she likes it! She will be getting it Thursday.

I've got a few other works in progress and I made a huge dent in my gardening chores so that gave me some satisfaction.

In other news, I'm back at work.

On the Plus side,  I'm doing all the flower containers for the clinic.
(Wahoo! Anything to be outside!)

On the Minus side is that 3 of the rescued abused dogs are now here at the clinic
and it hurts my heart to look at them. 

But on the Plus, they are getting better and the fourth dog is already at a rescue!

So... Enough about that.

Sigh.

I HATE doing commissioned paintings....

well, not every single one of them but most.
This one took me FOREVER.

Actually it's the second painting of this little dog.
I had done one of just his face and then when he came into the clinic,
I realized that my painting of him, that I had not yet finished, had him with a much wider face.
One of my co-workers thinks that maybe I was channeling my Jimmy instead.
So I started over and did a full body painting from a photo I had taken of him.

At first I had him too "yellow" and then too dark and finally I think I came up with a shade that I felt was right.
Or at least as close as I could get.
Then I kept messing with his "eyes" and suddenly one was bigger than the other.
Finally I got to the point where I felt it was the best I could do...
although I still am not completely happy with the finally result.
I tell you, it's so mentally exhausting on me that I wonder why I do it.
I took the painting into my co-worker and she was ecstatic.
She even wiped her eyes.
Now she wants me to paint her other dog.
I already have another co-worker ahead of her who has sent me photos of her dog (who has passed on a few years ago) and she wants me to do his portrait with his tongue out.
Luckily they are very good photo shots but I feel the pressure just thinking about it.
Then another co-worker who is moving and will be gone in a few weeks asked me to paint her dog too...
and then another has text me photos of her mom's dog and her grandma's dog and needs them as Christmas presents.
Jeez, the pressure.
and then...there's the money issue.
How much to charge. 
In this world of art prints and copies of paintings at Hobby Lobby and Target selling at super low prices, people just don't get it.
People ask how much time I spent on painting and that kinda drives me crazy.
Today I gave a dog a bath and blow-dried him and his owner paid me almost as much as I made for the painting and it only took me 20 minutes!
(Yeah, take a moment to think about that!)
There's much more to this story but you never know who is reading my blog so I'm just leaving it here.
I think I will do the paintings that I must do and then just concentrate on my "Kanga" and my "Blue" book,
and on my house. 
Yep, just working on it and getting it to a point where I'm happier with it.
I know well enough that I will never be done with my "House" projects
or the "Happiness" thing.
But I do need to learn to just enjoying Life instead of working and worrying it away.
sigh....

Oh! and one more thing -
I actually COOKED the other day.
Oh wait, not cooked but BAKED.
Baked cookies for Blue's birthday for work.
What a pain!
But it was in honor of Blue and everyone said they were delicious and they ate them all!
and it did have an UP side in the fact that
the frosting turned everyone's lips and teeth BLUE!

FINALLY...I've finished the Painting

A co-worker/friend commissioned a painting from me of her rescued collie, Kelly.
I did a post about it HERE.

Then this May, Kelly had to be rushed to the University when she suddenly could not walk.
It was all very unexpected.
Once there, it was discovered that she had a blood clot in her leg. 
My friend was constantly on the phone, conferring back and forth with the Veterinarian.
They were running various tests and Kelly's "Mom" was struggling with the decision on whether or not to approve the removal of the leg, if that was what would be needed to be done in order to save her life.
She was torn between all that Kelly had already been through and whether or not to do the surgery.
If she approved it, she wanted to do it for the right reason.
To make Kelly happy and healthy and not to make her suffer because she could not bear the thought of losing her.
She was agonizing over this decision as the hospital tried to stabilize Kelly and bring her to a point where she would be able to handle such an amputation.
During this frantic time, another blood clot to her heart, took her life.
Startling and heartbreaking news.
Everyone was devastated and the veterinarian was in tears when my friend's husband made the trip to go get Kelly and bring her home to her final resting place.
Kelly had touched the heart of all those who had tried to help her.
Thankfully she had a loving home in the final months of her life, a home where she was with other dogs to run on an acreage and to know true love.
My friend commissioned another painting of Kelly from me.
At first she wanted something exactly like the first painting, to give it as a "gift" to the veterinarian.
I told her that I wasn't sure if I could reproduce it and then after talking, we decided on a different pose but still the same Starfish story.
I wanted to do this one also as a Mixed Media and I asked if I could include a rainbow in the painting to represent the Rainbow Bridge.
My friend liked that idea.
For some reason, I had a difficult time with this painting, I just could not seem to get it "right".

Finally I have finished it.

My friend was very happy with it and my other co-workers liked it a lot.
I'm glad.
Of course, being me. I'm very critical of it but if she's happy, I'm happy.